The present invention is directed to oxalic acid or oxalate compositions and methods of producing such compositions and for utilizing oxalic acid or oxalate compositions including solutions, mixtures, products, creams, rinses, and the like, in the treatment, control, prevention, remedy or the like of infectious or pathogenic bacterial, viral and other diseases or conditions in humans and in other animals.
Conventional medicine treats infectious or pathogenic bacterial diseases of humans and other warm-blooded animals with antibiotics, sulfonamides, antiseptic or antibacterial ointments or creams, and the like.
Further, skin areas are sanitized or sterilized following injury or prior to surgery, for example, with antiseptic or antimicrobial agents such as alcohol, iodine, hydrogen peroxide, and other antibacterial compounds or chemicals to kill all the bacteria and prevent infection.
Viral infections are more difficult to treat since antibiotics and other drugs used to treat bacterial infections are administered only to boost the immune system and prevent secondary bacterial infections, but do not cure or treat the viral infection. Viral multiplication may be interrupted by a variety of chemicals at various stages. One group of chemicals blocks nucleic acid synthesis while a second group interferes with protein synthesis. These known chemicals do not completely eliminate or cure the virus so that viral infection can recur such as in herpes simplex. Further, in the treatment of viral infections, the immune system is boosted to help the body's natural immune system fight the virus. For example, the patient is given large doses of vitamins and the like.
Recently, it has been advertised that zinc and echinacea help reduce the length of a cold (infectious viral disease) but do not actually cure the disease.
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The virus attacks certain white blood cells, called T-cells, and weakens the body's immune system. AIDS occurs when an HIV-infected person develops a life threatening condition or their number of disease fighting T-cells becomes dangerously low. Recently, it was reported that among persons ages 25-44 years HIV infection is now the leading cause of death in men and third leading cause in women in the U.S. In 1995, approximately 40,000 Americans contracted HIV. Worldwide, one million people died from AIDS in 1996 and reported cases increased by 19 percent.
It has been about 15 years since the HIV/AIDS virus was first identified. Tragically, the AIDS epidemic has claimed over 4.5 million lives worldwide. Today, significant strides are being made in understanding the virus and ways to battle the disease. There are at least 42 approved medicines and over 120 drugs currently being developed by pharmaceutical company researchers to fight HIV/AIDS.
As in the treatment of infectious bacterial disease, the treatment of viruses including HIV/AIDS involves the use of one or more chemotherapeutic agents to prevent, slow or stop the reproduction of the bacteria or virus.
A new class of medicines called protease inhibitors when combined with one or more of the established HIV/AIDS medicines, have shown to work together to attack the HIV virus at different stages of its progression. This combination or "cocktail" therapy has been shown to reduce the level of HIV in the bloodstream by up to 99 percent in some patients, thereby potentially halting or slowing the advancement of the disease.
More than 1.3 million cases of cancer will be diagnosed this year. Over a trillion dollars has been spent on trying to find a cure for cancer. In 1971, the U.S. committed itself to waging a "war" on cancer with the National Cancer Act of 1971. Prior to the advent of the present invention, a so-called "magic bullet" or a single medicine or treatment that will cure cancer has not been found. Conventional cancer treatments include invasive surgery to remove tumors and cancers and treatment with radioactive or chemical poisonous oncological chemotherapies which cause weakness, hair loss, weight loss, reduced immunity, and the like.
Much has been published recently about beta carotene, antioxidants, vitamins, and foods such as garlic for the treatment of cancer and infection. Also, studies have been done on the relationship between stress and reduced immune system and susceptibility to disease and cancer because of stress.
Oxalic acid or ethanedioic acid (C.sub.2 H.sub.2 O.sub.4), is a dicarboxylic acid and is present in many plants and vegetables, notably in those of the Oxalis and Rumex families, where it often occurs in the cell sap of the plants as the potassium or calcium salt (oxalate, Tables I-IV). Oxalic acid is also a product of the metabolism of many molds. Several species of Penicillum and Aspergillus convert sugar into calcium oxalate with a 90 percent yield under optimum conditions. Oxalic acid is also made by passing carbon monoxide into concentrated NaOH or heating sodium formate in the presence of NaOH.
Oxalic acid dohydrate, monoclinic tablets, prisms, and granules are considered poisonous. Anhydrous oxalic acid is crystallized from glacial acetic acid and is orthorhombic with the crystals being pyramidal or elongated octahedral.
Oxalic acid is listed as being caustic and corrosive to the skin and mucous membranes. Ingestion may cause severe gastroenteritis, with vomiting, diarrhea, or melena. Renal damage can occur as a result of formation of excessive calcium oxalate crystals. Convulsions, coma, or death from cardiovascular collapse can also occur.
Conventional uses of oxalic acid include as an analytical reagent, in calico printing and dying, for bleaching straw and leather, removing paint or varnish, rust or ink stains, cleaning wood, and manufacturing oxalates, blue ink, celluloid, intermediates and dyes, in metal polishes, in purifying methanol, for decolorizing crude glycerol, for stabilizing hydrocyanic acid, as a general reducing agent, in ceramics and pigments, in metallurgy as a cleanser, in the paper industry, in photography, in process engraving, in rubber manufacturing, in making glucose from starch, as a condensing agent in organic chemistry, and as a veterinary hemostatic agent when mixed in 5 percent solution with 5 percent malonic acid.
As described in "Oxalic Acid in Biology and Medicine" by A. Hodgkinson, 1977, oxalic acid was formerly used intravenously as a hemostatic agent and topically as an antiseptic in man and other animals but this was discontinued because of its toxicity and the danger of precipitating insoluble calcium oxalate in the tissues. Oxalic acid is a relatively strong acid having a first dissociation constant being exceeded by that of only a few halogen-substituted carboxylic acids. Oxalic acid forms neutral and acid salts with monovalent metals and ammonia. Oxalic acid forms a number of oxalates or salts including calcium oxalate, potassium oxalate, sodium oxalate, strontium oxalate, magnesium oxalate, and the like. Oxalic acid also inhibits the activity of a number of enzymes possibly due to the competition between oxalate and a structurally similar substrate of the enzyme. Precipitation as the calcium salt is the classical method of separating oxalic acid from other substances. Although calcium oxalate is generally considered to be an insoluble salt this is a relative term and its solubility in water is actually 6-7 mg/l at room temperature. Biological fluids contain many substances that affect the solubility or rate of crystallization of calcium oxalate or co-precipitate with the salt. For example, magnesium, polyphosphates and other polyelectrolytes affect the solubility or rate of crystallization of calcium oxalate while phosphate and sulphate ions, uric acid and citric acid co-precipitate with the salt.
Further, as reported in a literature including "Oxalic Acid in Biology and Medicine", poisoning from oxalic acid in animals and man has been recognized since the beginning of the 19th Century. The death rate from oxalate poisoning has declined supposedly because of a decreased use of oxalic acid in domestic cleaning fluids. Examples of chronic poisoning by absorption of oxalic acid through the skin and by inhalation have been reported. The range of lethal doses in acute poisoning is wide, varying between 2 and 30 g and depending upon a variety of factors such as the form in which the acid or its salt is taken and the amount of food, particularly calcium, which is present in the stomach and intestine. Death has occurred as early as 3 minutes and as late as 14 days after ingestion. Symptoms of acute oxalic acid toxicity in man can be divided into those caused by a local corrosive action and those resulting from absorption and excretion of the soluble oxalate. If a high concentration or the solid form is taken, the local effects may be predominant and death may result from acute hemorrhagic gastroenteritis without development of symptoms depending on absorption. If death does not result from local corrosive action then symptoms develop from the systemic effects and from renal insufficiency. The cardiovascular, neuromuscular and central nervous systems are markedly affected. The skin is pale, cold and clammy, the pulse is weak and the blood pressure and temperature are low. Numbness and tingling may develop in the extremities and cramp-like muscular and abdominal pain may be extremely severe. Local or generalized muscular twitchings occur and may progress to marked tetany and convulsive seizures. The central nervous system may show evidence of excitation or depression, varying from an acute maniacal state to stupor and coma. Death results from cardiovascular collapse or depression of the central nervous system. Renal involvement is frequent and even if the patient survives the severe local or systemic effects, death may ultimately occur from renal insufficiency, which dominates the picture from the second day. Oliguria develops and may progress to anuria.
Hence, there is a need for oxalic acid or oxalate compositions and methods of producing such compositions and for treating, preventing, impeding, retarding, delaying, controlling, or the like, infectious or pathogenic microbial, bacterial, viral disease, cancers, tumors, neoplasms, and other diseases or conditions in warm-blooded animals including humans and pets.